Search Results release their debut 'Information Blip' LP on digital and vinyl

Search Results are a Dublin trio and Information Blip is their debut album. They play an album launch gig in The Workman's Club on Saturday September 16

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Album: Information Blip

Band: Search Results

Released: September 15 2023

Teased by four singles, the eagerly anticipated debut album from Dublin's brilliant but impossible to pigeon hole Search Results is now released. We asked Jonah Hoy to review it.

Artwork for Information Blip by Search Results

Imagine you are watching Looney Tunes with Wile E. Coyote trying to nab Roadrunner and wring him by his neck. All attempts to get that bird to stay still and take the bait fail, but this coyote has one more trick up his sleeve (spoiler - it doesn't work). He tries to lure Roadrunner onto the train and paints a tunnel opening on the canyon wall. Somehow the two switch places leaving Wile E. on top of the train with a cartoonishly big bruise on his head, steering straight towards the mural.

Stars dance around his face as he stares into the gloom of his failed attempt. The audience patiently waits for him to go splat (with Xs on his eyes) as he floats to the ground, side to side like a paper airplane done flying. If there were a soundtrack to that melancholy acceptance of your manic failed attempts to get the thing you want, it would be Search Results' new album Information Blip.

Birds and coyotes go through tunnels, so why not the boys in Search Results? The instrumental sound carries you in with clear, crunchy distortion. The vocals feel as if you are going through a tunnel with enough mumbling, and then sufficient snarl to make it sometimes hard to pick out what exactly the trio is trying to say.

Screeching guitar fills that squeal just enough to pierce your ear in a romantic way allow you to feel the shout and angst that vocals do not need to express. They mix in some acoustic guitar to add a more melodic and earthy sound - think the Violent Femmes, but more nonchalant. Then they have this almost drop-and-clean guitar sound on the track, Visiting Years, which feels absolutely lovely. Something just a little sweet mixed in through all the bitterness. The semi-sweet chocolate bar you're about to bake cookies with.

With their skeletal approach and the mix of electric sounds and vibrations, it's fast-paced and (post) punky. Being a three-piece band brings an old-school punk vibe to the group and its tracks. It is almost bare bones, just the necessities required to make killer tunes.

Interwoven with their sound, there is an ethereal and atmospheric touch to the songs. As you are carried into the tunnel, you hear the snare bop its 4/4 beat, and the echoing guitar plays a melody so sweet and haunting that it leads you away as soon as the chorus comes crashing like a banshee. The guitar and every instrument in the world sound as if they are being used to smash themselves to bits to make the thunderous climax of the song, for example, in the track Sleeping.

Throw in some harmonica here and there, with a whimsy to their lyrics and singing. While hollow and monotone they seem childlike and capricious too. They have the sound of The Jam but more melancholic, with the vocal capacity of Julian Casablancas from the Strokes.

Information Blip is an ethereal and atmospheric garage rock punk album that will definitely lead you down to a good session of closing your eyes, laying on the floor with the big headphones on while the record player turns 'til it's all done. And then play again. And again.

Information Blip is out on all streaming platforms and available to order now on Blowtorch vinyl.

Search Results 'Information Blip' 12" vinyl LP (pre order)

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